It looks like that’s intentional. It’s trying to capture the vibe of games from the original Half Life era and seems to be doing a fine job from what I can see.
You just named 2 of my favorite episodes. Clearly they just weren’t for you? The fantasy one did a fantastic job showcasing a father’s love for his daughter and the musical episode was both funny and moved the characters forward a lot… I don’t see how either of these could possibly be bad things but ig to each his own.
That headline is a bit misleading… The season was rewritten because you couldn’t understand it unless you had seen every other bit of star trek and remembered everything that happened… It required too much star trek knowledge not that it was too similar to other star trek shows.
I would NOT call Oppenheimer a major improvement! It was one of my least favorite theater experiences because I couldn’t hear half of the dialogue and the whole thing was way too loud.